Chapter Eighty-Nine: Alcohol

“Damn it all,” said the boss. “Clamp his fingers first.”

The henchmen pried open Guo Decai’s hand and forced each finger into the finger press. Barely a moment passed before his screams shook the rafters; snot and tears ran down his face at once.

“I confess! I confess everything!”

“Damn it all,” the boss snarled, cursing under his breath. “We haven’t even started the real punishment and you’re already confessing. It must be a lie. Beat him again!”

“Aaah!”

After the finger press, the branding iron, and the cane across the rear, Guo Decai was already half-dead. During the beating, he had long since spilled everything he knew. When he had finished speaking, he fainted.

The boss’s adviser leaned in and asked, “Boss, do you believe him?”

“Do you think I should?”

“I think he can be believed.”

The adviser was named Qian Dabin, the only man in Windstone Village who had ever gone to school, and so the boss had invited him to serve as his counselor.

The boss ordered his men to drag Guo Decai away, then returned to the rear hall for a private talk with Qian Dabin.

Qian Dabin analyzed the matter. “What he said doesn’t sound made up. We already heard that the Guo family in Deer-Crane Gully has long been on bad terms with the Xu family. He had no reason to help the Xu clan trip us up.”

The boss frowned. “Then what are you saying? Kill him, or keep him alive?”

“Kill him and it will do no good. Better to keep him. Once Deer-Crane Gully is subdued, he may still be useful.”

The boss fell into thought for a while, then said, “Very well. Let’s handle it that way.”

Qian Dabin added, “Oh, and Boss, as for Deer-Crane Gully, what is your view of the matter?”

The boss gave a contemptuous laugh. “Deer-Crane Gully is a heap of loose sand, and they still dare oppose us. We will fight them, that is certain, and we will crush them hard.”

Qian Dabin nodded. “Then I have three strategies, upper, middle, and lower, that can help you pacify Deer-Crane Gully.”

“Let me hear them.”

“The best strategy is the fastest one: send out troops immediately. The sooner the better. March to Deer-Crane Gully at top speed and break their resistance. But this plan is too hasty. Our men have already been demoralized by the recent unrest, and if we strip our own defenses bare, those bandits may come sniffing around.”

“The middle strategy is the safe one. Cut off Deer-Crane Gully’s salt supply. After a month, or two, sooner or later they will be unable to endure the shortage. They will certainly turn around and attack us, and then we can wait in freshness while they arrive exhausted, and wipe them out.”

“The lowest strategy is to first calm the men involved in this unrest, then clear out the bandits around us. Once our own settlement is secure, we can send troops to attack Deer-Crane Gully.”

After laying out the three plans, Qian Dabin said, “I ask the Boss to make the decision.”

The boss paced in silence for a while and said, “The best plan is too rushed, the worst plan is pointless. I choose the middle one.”

More than twenty days had passed since Xu Wenshan’s scheme of setting a tiger against a wolf. Windstone Village had recovered from the chaos, the losses in manpower had quickly been filled by men drawn from below, and the defenses inside and outside the stockade were tighter than before by many times over. Deer-Crane Gully’s situation, however, was far from good.

The drawbacks of the salt shortage had begun to show. Xu Wenshan had only seized a little over half a cart of salt, and by selling it at the regulated price to each household, every family had been allotted barely enough for less than a month. Though Xu Wenshan repeatedly told them to save it and tighten their belts, the villagers’ salt jars still emptied quickly.

Since Xu Wenshan had robbed the salt, when the villagers ran out they naturally came looking for him. Some begged him to go rob more salt, and some stood crying in front of the Xu house. The commotion became known throughout the camp. The three squad leaders came every day to plead with him to lead them in flattening Windstone Village, but Xu Wenshan brushed them off each time.

Given the guard force’s current fighting strength, even if they managed to crush Windstone Village’s armed men, it would only be a costly victory. When force was insufficient, even if they barely managed to swallow Windstone Village, they would soon be forced to spit it back out. A victory like that was worse than no victory at all.

What Xu Wenshan wanted was a complete victory.

For that, he needed more preparation.

A little over a month later, he returned to Blacksmith Niu’s house.

The moment he stepped inside, he was stunned by the scene. The disorder in the room rivaled a boys’ dormitory; after taking two steps, he nearly kicked some unidentifiable part lying on the floor.

When Blacksmith Niu saw him, he opened his swollen eyes and said, “So it’s Young Master Xu. Come in, sit down—”

Then he looked around and realized there was nowhere to sit. With a wave of his hand, he swept all the odds and ends on the table to the floor, where they clattered and crashed in a noisy mess.

“All right, all right, don’t trouble yourself,” Xu Wenshan said. “Is it finished yet?”

Blacksmith Niu scratched his head. “There’s a half-finished piece, but…”

“Let me see.”

Blacksmith Niu led Xu Wenshan to the large contraption. Seeing that crude distiller, Xu Wenshan could not help but marvel; its degree of completion was actually quite high.

“According to what you said, I keep having trouble getting the distance between the first cooling system and the second one right, and I still can’t solve the sealing problem at the feed opening. The worst part is this spiral cooling pipe…”

Xu Wenshan had to admit that Blacksmith Niu was truly dedicated. “Let’s give it a try first.”

That trial took three days.

As a liberal arts graduate, Xu Wenshan only knew that whatever fermented from starch contained not just water and methanol, but also a lot of aldehydes. To reach medicinal standards, it would require several cooling stages and multiple collection troughs, though he only knew the rough outline.

Yes, at the beginning, Xu Wenshan had intended to make medical alcohol.

The difference between medical alcohol and what people usually call alcohol is that medical alcohol is seventy-five percent pure. If the concentration is too high, the cells form a protective film on the surface of the skin and the bacteria are not killed.

Because he was always worried about plague in this place, where medical methods were backward, he had first wanted to produce medical alcohol. Even if he could not manage that, distilled liquor would have been fine too.

But now he had come to his senses. To hell with medical alcohol—why not make firebombs instead?

The only problem with using alcohol for firebombs was the cost: the raw material and fuel were both too scarce. But for Xu Wenshan, those two problems were no problem at all. He still had a whole patch of magical fertile soil at home, so wheat was abundant enough; and there were enough trees all around Deer-Crane Gully.

Thus, he and Blacksmith Niu embraced the spirit of exploration, threw caution to the wind, and boldly improved the design. In the end, the thing they built was made from a mixture of iron, pottery, and copper.

The final product was even more streamlined than the original. From several trials, Xu Wenshan could be certain that this thing could produce alcohol good enough to meet combustion standards.